The Currie Cup is one of the
oldest rugby competitions, with the first games played in 1889, although it was only in 1892 that it became officially known as the Currie Cup. The competition had its humble beginnings as an inter-province competition in 1884, but when the
South African Rugby Board was founded in 1889 it decided to organize a national competition that would involve representative teams from all the major unions. The original participating unions were
Western Province,
Griqualand West,
Transvaal and
Eastern Province. The first tournament was held in
Kimberley and was won by
Western Province. For a prize they received a silver cup donated by the South African Rugby Board, now displayed at the SA Rugby Museum in
Cape Town. The story of how the Currie Cup came to be comes from the first overseas rugby team to tour South Africa in 1891, The British Isles, who carried with them a particularly precious bit of cargo. Among the bags, boots and balls was a golden cup given to them by
Sir Donald Currie, owner of
Union-Castle Lines, the shipping company that transported them to the southern tip of Africa. Sir Donald was clear with his instructions – hand this trophy over to the team in South Africa that gives the best game; and after a spirited display where the unbeaten British Lions narrowly won 3–0,
Griqualand West became the first ever holders of the Currie Cup. They then handed the trophy over to the South African rugby board and it became the floating trophy for the Currie Cup competition. The inaugural Currie Cup tournament was thus held in 1892 with
Western Province earning the honour of holding it aloft as the first official winners.
Western Province dominated the competition's early years, and by 1920 the team from Cape Town had already secured the trophy 10 times. Only
Griqualand West could halt the rampant WP side and win the trophy in 1899 and 1911. In 1922 the
Transvaal won the competition for the first time, however
Western Province would continue to dominate the Currie Cup throughout the 1920s and 1930s, winning the trophy a further 4 times and sharing it twice with
Border. In 1939 the trophy returned to Johannesburg for only the second time after
Transvaal defeated
Western Province in Cape Town. This was the first time WP had lost a final at their home ground
Newlands. The Currie Cup went into hiatus during the Second World War but resumed in 1946 when claimed their first ever trophy by beating
Western Province 11–9 in the final at
Loftus Versfeld in Pretoria. The late 1940s and early 1950s were dominated by
Transvaal who would win the trophy in 1950 and 1952, however in 1954 the Currie Cup would finally return south following
Western Province's narrow 11–8 victory over in the final at Newlands in Cape Town. The competition missed a few years here for reasons such as war and the like, but in 1968 it became a fully fledged annual showpiece. At the end of the apartheid 1980s, South African rugby supporters were treated to two of the most memorable Currie Cup finals. In 1989 winger
Carel du Plessis scored a last-minute try as WP managed to draw with 16-all, Riaan Gouws missed the conversion which would have given WP its 6th title of the decade a feat which has never been achieved. The following year the Blue Bulls slipped up, though, and Natal sneaked home 18–12, inspired by fly-half
Joel Stransky. The 1990s saw further improvement by Natal and the rise of
Francois Pienaar's Transvaal. Since the end of apartheid in 1990–4, and the age of professionalism in rugby union in the early 1990s, the Currie Cup has become much more competitive with no team able to carve out an era of dominance like that of WP in the early years or in the 1970s and 1980s. In order to adjust to the European competition calendar, from the 2024 season the Currie Cup takes place in a new window between July and late September. ==Teams==